


binary stars

by ailurea



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Tattoo Parlor, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Singer Shiro (Voltron), Tattoo Artist Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:27:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27019531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ailurea/pseuds/ailurea
Summary: Tattoo artist Keith gets a late-night surprise visit from his favorite customer—okay, favorite person. And Shiro only has more surprises in store.
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 38
Kudos: 300
Collections: Bad Boys





	binary stars

**Author's Note:**

> written for the rock sheith zine, in collaboration with ribbit! i'll update this with a link to the art once it's posted! ♥
> 
> thank you to the mods for putting this project together, and to ribbit for being an amazing partner! it was so much fun coming up with the ideas for this piece together, and i'm so excited we can share it now!

It’s past midnight, but Keith’s still down in the tattoo parlor working on a design when he hears the door rattle, like someone’s trying to open it from the outside.

 _I am way too tired for this shit_ , he thinks, going for the dagger he keeps in the bottom drawer of his desk, but then the rattling is replaced by the sound of a key sliding into the lock, and his heart starts racing for a different reason.

Only a few people have keys to the parlor. Only one would be visiting at this time of night.

Sure enough, moments after the door opens, Shiro steps around the corner. He smiles, his whole face brightening as his eyes land on Keith. “Hey.”

Keith stands and wordlessly walks over to wrap Shiro in a hug, sliding his arms under the warmth of Shiro’s leather jacket to be as close to his skin as possible.

Shiro sighs happily and squeezes him back, resting his chin on top of Keith’s head in a way that Keith will only ever allow from him. “I missed you so much.”

“Whose fault was that, asshole?” Keith says against his sternum.

Shiro laughs. “Okay, I deserve that.” He pulls back, and Keith gets a good look at him. The lines of Shiro’s face have softened since the last time Keith saw him in person, a few months ago—probably since he’s off tour now and has had time to relax. “I wish you could’ve come with me.”

Keith wishes so too, but—

“The parlor,” Shiro says, smiling gently. “I know.”

Keith had come into the parlor entirely by chance. His dad died when he was thirteen, and Keith didn’t know what to expect, but it certainly wasn’t to end up with the heavily-pierced owner of the Blades and Roses tattoo parlor as his foster dad. He can only assume that Ulaz looked a lot more respectable when he met with the social workers.

But that meant that when Keith was younger, if he wasn’t at school or doing homework in the condo upstairs, he was down in the parlor, sketching designs or watching Ulaz work, learning the differences between the inks and how to care for the equipment. Ulaz would even buy him pig skin to practice on.

Now Keith knows that it was all part of Ulaz’s master plan to groom a successor so that he’d be free to run off with his husband on a decades-late honeymoon that’s lasted three years and counting. Keith’s been running the parlor ever since. It’s been a dream, but it also means he hasn’t been able to see Shiro do a show live.

“How’ve you been?” Shiro says, using the edge of his hand to brush the bangs out of Keith’s face. Keith can’t stop himself from leaning into the metal.

“Fine,” Keith says. “Working. Can’t believe you ran off while you still had bandages on the last one. Let me see it.”

He grips the lapels of Shiro’s jacket, and Shiro laughs and helps him pull it off, leaving him in a clingy white tee that makes Keith’s mouth water. He turns away quickly. It’s an easy pattern for them now—Keith hangs up Shiro’s jacket in the closet, and Shiro settles into his favorite tattoo chair, in the corner near Keith’s drawing desk.

Keith turns on the light and pulls a stool with him as he walks over. Shiro already has his left arm up on the rest for Keith to inspect.

Only a few days before he’d left, Shiro had come by for his regular addition to his sleeve. The tattoos there are Shiro’s life, all the moments that are important to him etched into his skin in black and red ink. Shiro’s first—and Keith’s first—is on his wrist, over his pulse point. It’s a branch of cherry blossoms, along with the kanji for his grandfather’s name and a small _until we meet again_. 

Keith had been worried about fucking up a design so important. It was only the day after he’d finished his training and gotten his license when Shiro had stumbled in, sad and tired and aching. Keith had almost turned him down, let Ulaz take care of him instead.

That was a little over five years ago, and Keith’s still endlessly glad that he didn’t.

The latest one is a black lion, curled around a date on Shiro’s shoulder. February 29, 2008—Shiro’s sixteenth birthday, and the day he finally said fuck it, dropped out of Science Olympiad, and started the garage band he’s been a part of ever since.

Keith angles Shiro’s arm so he can see the full design. The lines and colors are all still strong, and he doesn’t see any hints of scarring. “Looks good.”

“I’d hope so,” Shiro says, grinning. He’s looking at Keith. “I only go to the best artist in the country, you know. His waitlist is like a year long and he’s expensive as fuck, but he’s worth it. Also, he sneaks me in after hours because he loves me.”

Keith rolls his eyes, but he smiles as he clicks off the light. “You already have plans for your next one?”

“I have plans,” Shiro says, and ominously leaves it at that.

Keith raises his eyebrows.

Shiro swings his legs off the chair and walks over to Keith’s drawing desk. He pauses, looking at the design Keith was working on before Shiro had come in. “What’s this?”

Keith picks it up. Shiro crowds behind him and settles his chin on Keith’s shoulder to get a closer look. It’s not a new position for them, but it always feels that same combination of wonderful and terrifying. Keith shivers involuntarily.

He feels Shiro’s head turn, and then Shiro’s arms wrap around him. “You cold?”

“I’m okay,” Keith says. He doesn’t move to get out of the hold. “It’s your new album cover. I’m still working on it, but what do you think so far?”

“It’s gorgeous,” Shiro says, sounding sincerely in awe. He hesitates, like he’s about to say something else, but then he laughs it off. “Damn. It’s going to be flying off the shelves because of you.”

Keith snorts. It isn’t a very complicated design. A third of it is silhouettes of Shiro’s bandmates performing on stage. The other third stretches the stage into the outdoors, where Shiro’s silhouette stands apart, staring up at the stars. The realities of the present clashing against the whispered hopes and dreams of the past—that’s what the album said to him.

Shiro seems to agree.

“What are you gonna do with all your newfound riches?” Shiro says, snuggling into him in a way that tickles and makes Keith squirm. “Take a vacation for once? No, you love your job too much… Fancier inks? Ooh, those glow-in-the-dark ones?”

Keith snorts again. “I don’t trust that shit.” He’s also not sure he could afford that shit from whatever Shiro’s paying him.

He’d asked for one percent of album sales because Shiro’d refused to let him do it for free and Keith wasn’t about to bankrupt his best friend’s garage band, especially not since Keith’s own business is thriving. If Shiro’s next tour does fairly well, maybe he’ll get ten or so people buying at every stop—Keith does the math in his head. His cut would total up somewhere around $50 to $100?

“I’ll take you out to a nice dinner,” Keith says, twisting in Shiro’s embrace to look at him. “As thanks for jump starting my career in album art design.”

Shiro huffs a breath. “Please. You won’t even let me take you out to a nice dinner, now you’re gonna do it on my paycheck?”

“I don’t remember you asking,” Keith says. Because that sounds like a date, and he’d remember Shiro asking him out on a date.

“Because I knew you’d say no!” Shiro’s grinning now. “Okay, Keith, would you let me take you to dinner at Sushi Iki?”

“Hell no,” Keith says, and he knows it’s too quick, but his instinctive reaction to a $500 dinner is too well-ingrained.

Shiro just gives him a look, like _see?_

Keith rolls his eyes and twists back around, holding up his design again. “You really like it?”

“I love it,” Shiro says. “Seriously. I haven’t even had time to tell you what I was thinking about, but it’s like you just heard it all somehow anyways.”

“I did hear it,” Keith says, “through your music.”

He’s always been able to understand the meanings behind Shiro’s songs, and this time wasn’t any different. Although this time… Keith doesn’t know if he’s projecting or what, but this time Keith felt his and Shiro’s relationship echoing back at him, seeping into his skin through Shiro’s husky voice and rhythmic guitar. It left Keith with a question that he’s afraid to ask.

“When I was trying to think of an idea for the cover,” Shiro says, “it felt like I could never get a picture to form in my mind. It’s kind of funny. I feel like the same thing happened while I was trying to write the songs. In the end, both problems were solved the same way.”

Keith feels like he has to drag the words from his throat when he says, “How’s that?”

Shiro smiles. “I just needed you.”

Keith’s mind wipes.

“It’s all about you,” Shiro says. “It’s all for you.”

Keith’s heart pounds. He should say something, he knows, but instead he freezes, and all the words collect in his throat into a jumbled mess that wouldn’t make any sense if he were to say them aloud. He swallows them down.

Shiro gently tugs the paper out of Keith’s hands and sets it on the desk. “This is what I had in mind for my next one,” Shiro says. He pulls out a piece of paper and holds it in front of Keith.

It’s an image of two stars, and the words _you saved me_ in flowing script. Keith takes the paper and runs his thumb over the words. “What stars are these?”

“Turn it over.”

On the back is a formal-looking notification from a star registry, declaring that the binary stars at the coordinates have been named _Keith & Shiro_.

Shiro’s holding the paper up with one hand. His other tightens on Keith’s waist as he says, “What do you think?”

As far as messages go, it’s pretty unambiguous. Keith turns around in Shiro’s arm so that they’re standing face-to-face. Shiro looks so tentative, so fragile—it’s stupid. It’s stupid because he must know how Keith feels. How Keith has felt for years.

Keith puts his hands on Shiro’s biceps and pushes himself up. There’s barely any hesitation from Shiro before he has one arm wrapping around Keith’s upper back, one arm around his lower, crushing Keith against him as their mouths meet in a desperate, bruising kiss.

It’s everything he’s wanted for so long. Everything he was too afraid to ask for, for fear of losing the best thing in his entire, lonely life.

But when he feels wetness and tastes saltiness and pulls back in embarrassment, he realizes quickly that they’re Shiro’s tears, not his.

Shiro swipes at his face with the back of his hand. “Ah, fuck, seriously?” He laughs weakly. “Sorry. God. I feel like I’ve been holding my breath all year worrying about your reaction.”

“I respect you,” Keith says seriously. “I was ready to pine for the rest of my fucking life.”

“I was too,” Shiro admits. “But then I started writing this album, and it made me really face how much you mean to me. And I realized there’d be nothing I’d regret more than if I didn’t tell you that. So—”

“I love you,” Keith says.

Shiro’s jaw drops. “What the fuck!” He squeezes Keith like a boa constrictor and shakes him, and Keith only laughs. “I was literally about to say it first!”

“You were taking too long,” Keith says, sticking his tongue out.

Shiro leans down and sucks it into his mouth, making Keith give a muffled yelp and hit him. Shiro retaliates by taking hold of Keith’s thighs and dropping him onto his desk without breaking their kiss. Then he snakes an arm under Keith’s lower back, supporting him as he crowds over him, forcing him down and back until his shoulders hit the wall.

Keith pushes at Shiro until he backs off. “Hey, asshole, this is a sacred workspace—”

Shiro nips at his jaw. “Should’ve thought of that before stealing my thunder.”

“Well it’s not my fault you decided you wanted to give a grand speech and take fucking _forever_ —”

“Keith.”

“What?”

Shiro crushes him further against the wall and kisses him again, drowning Keith in a longing so deep that he doesn’t know which way is up anymore. As a way of shutting him up, it’s very effective. The ticklish cold of Shiro’s lip ring sends delicious shivers down his spine. When Shiro finally pulls back, Keith can only blink at him, dazed.

“I win,” Shiro murmurs, and kisses him again.

“I dunno,” Keith says. He thinks his heart might beat out of his chest. “I feel like I’m the one winning here.”

Shiro’s smirk softens into a genuine smile. “So now you’ll let me take you out to dinner, right?”

That snaps Keith back into reality. “Not for five hundred dollar sushi you’re not.”

“Come on,” Shiro says, nosing at his jaw. “It’s okay to splurge every once in a while. It’s not like I don’t have the money for it.”

Keith has the money for it, and the good sense to not spend it on something like that. But if Shiro really wants to— “I should be the one taking you out, then,” Keith says.

Shiro’s brow furrows and he draws back. “Why?”

Keith sits up. “Because I make more money than you.”

Shiro pauses for a long moment.

“Keith,” he says finally. “Do you listen to the albums I give you?”

“Of course,” Keith says, offended. “Every song. I can sing all of them. Even that ridiculous one about how much you hated your high school physics teacher.”

“To be fair, Slav deserves it and no one else knows what that song means,” Shiro says primly. “Do you ever play the radio?”

“Not really?” He only plays piano instrumentals in the parlor to help his clients relax. When he’s designing, he prefers instrumental music, and he has his own playlist that he uses. He doesn’t listen to a lot of music in his free time, aside from Shiro’s.

“And you don’t watch TV, you never look at magazines, and you only use social media if you have to.” Shiro sounds resigned, and like he’s just figured something out for himself. “Right. Can you look at this for a sec?”

He messes around with his phone for a moment, then hands it to Keith. It’s pulled up to a Wikipedia article for _Takashi Shirogane_.

Maybe Shiro’s doing a bit better than Keith thought, if he has a Wikipedia article.

_Takashi Shirogane (born February 29, 1992), known professionally as SHIRO, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician, best known as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the rock band Black Lion._

The band has a link, too. He taps it.

_Black Lion is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 2008. The band consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Takashi Shirogane, bassist Lotor Zarkonson, lead guitarist and vocalist Allura d'Altea, and drummer Matthew Holt._

_In 2014, Black Lion was signed to Marmora Records, and shortly after, the band recorded and released their debut studio album, Kerberos (2015). The album produced two hit singles, “Across the Universe” and “Black Paladins”, and was certified double platinum in the US._

“Shiro,” Keith says, with a calm he does not feel. “What the fuck.”

“I swear I thought you knew!” Shiro says. “I thought it’d be impossible for you to not know!”

“It’s not like you ever came in here and said _oh by the way Keith I’m actually super fucking famous!_ ”

“That’s not something I usually have to tell people,” Shiro says, distressed. “You celebrated with me when we got signed, remember? Signing is a big deal!”

“I mean, yeah, but I thought that was just some small indie label,” Keith says, scrolling back up and confirming that the band is, in fact, signed with Marmora Records. “Right? Isn’t that Kolivan’s label?”

Shiro gapes at him. “How do you know Kolivan?”

“He’s friends with Ulaz and Thace.” Keith frowns at Shiro’s tone of voice. “Is Kolivan famous too?”

“Oh my god,” Shiro mutters. “ _Is Kolivan famous._ Next you’ll tell me you have Krolia over for dinner on the regular.”

“Who?”

“Never mind.”

“No, that name sounds familiar, actually.”

Shiro just gives him a look.

Keith grins, unabashed. “This why you always come over after closing?”

“Yeah.” Shiro shoves his hands in his pockets. “I wanna say we don’t have crazy fans or anything, but I don’t want to cause any trouble for you at work. Or outside of it. I understand if this makes you change your mind about things.”

“What do you mean?”

“You signed up for a relationship with Shiro. Not, you know— _SHIRO_.”

“You’re not two different people,” Keith says. “You know that, right?”

“But the expectations are different,” Shiro says.

Keith’s silent for a moment, studying him. “The stars you named for us, they’re binary stars, yeah?”

“Um.” Shiro blinks, and he looks confused, but he says, “Yeah, they are.”

“Why’d you pick binary stars?” Keith says. “Instead of just one?”

“Binary stars orbit around each other,” Shiro says slowly. “I guess I wanted to appreciate the fact that even though our lives are on different paths, and we’re not always together, we’re always here for each other.”

Keith takes his hand. “And that’s going to be true whether you go by Shiro, caps lock SHIRO, or dollar-sign-S $HIRO.”

“Oh god.” Shiro laughs. “Never let me do that.”

“How about exclamation-point-I SH!RO?”

“As long as you change your artist name to exclamation-point-I KE!TH.”

“Deal.”

Shiro intertwines their fingers. “You’re changing the subject.”

“I thought we were done with that conversation.” Keith tugs, pulling Shiro over him again. “I love you. Everything else is just details.”

“Wow,” Shiro breathes. “That was… surprisingly romantic.”

“I can be very romantic,” Keith says.

Shiro laughs. “I’m not sure I’ll believe it until I see it.”

So Keith shows him.

(All night.)

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much to hchano for betaing!! 
> 
> thank you so much for reading! ♥  
> i love, appreciate, and reply to all comments, even if it takes me a little while to get to them :)
> 
> catch me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/ailurea)!


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